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CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, INDUSTRIES, AND MINES OF PERSIA

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, INDUS­TRIES, AND MINES OF PERSIA (Oṭāq-e bāzargānī wa ṣanāyeʿ wa maʿāden-e Īrān; also called Oṭāq-e Īrān), a national federation of local chambers and syndicates created in Esfand 1348 Š./March 1970 through the merger of various local chambers of commerce and the national chamber of industries and mines of Iran. The purpose was to facilitate the functioning of the ministry of economy in its dealings with big traders and industrialists. The chamber is a legal entity consisting of a representative body (hayʾat-e namāyandagān) which is formally elected by the con­stituent members (big traders and/or industrialists), and the chamber’s board of directors (hayʾat-e raʾīsa). Since its formation in 1305 Š./1926, the Tehran chamber has dominated the activities of the other, national and local, chambers.

Councils of merchant representatives (majles-e wokalā-ye tojjār), 1301/1884. The antecedent of the chamber of commerce is to be found in certain events in 1301/1884, when the merchants of Tehran, led by Ḥājj Moḥammad-Ḥasan Amīn-al-Żarb, demanded that Mīrzā ʿAbd-al-Wahhāb Khan Naṣīr-al-Dawla should be dismissed as minister of commerce and that they should be permitted to establish a council com­posed exclusively of their own representatives to protect their interests against foreign competition and official corruption. The council was to exercise wide-ranging jurisdiction, from administering national commerce to adjudication of commercial disputes. It was also pro­posed that the council should undertake initiatives to further the economic development of the country, for example, establishing a national bank, building fac­tories, and instituting quality controls on export prod­ucts. Nāṣer-al-Dīn Shah agreed to this demand and on 12 Šawwāl 1301/5 August 1884 decreed the formation of such councils in the capital and other major cities (Ādamīyat and Nāṭeq, pp. 299-371; Ašraf, 1980, pp. 107-110; cf. bāzār iii. socioeconomic and political role of the bazar). This initial attempt failed, however, and the councils did not last long because of officials in the ministry of commerce who resisted it and provincial governors, who had long used their power over the merchant class to exact excessive fees (madāḵel; see, e.g., Molkārā, pp. 168-71). At the turn of the 20th century, the emerging bourgeois modernizers still called for the formation of an auton­omous chamber of commerce (Issawi, pp. 67-69).

Chambers of commerce (oṭāq-e tejārat), 1305-10 Š./1926-41. After a brief period (1297-1305 Š./1918-26) in which councils of commerce (šūrāhā-ye tejārat) were established and active in Tehran and major cities, in 1305 Š./1926 chambers of commerce were established to replace them. Half the board members of the councils had been elected by the merchants and the other half appointed by the Ministry of agriculture, commerce, and public utilities (Wezārat-e falāḥat, tejārat wa fawāʾed-e ʿammā; Majalla-ye falāḥatwa tejārat, 1297 Š./1918, pp. 69-70, 92-94, 110-50, 192-94; 1298 Š./1919, pp. 58-66; 1299 Š./1920, pp. 281-87). On 16 Mehr 1305 Š./8 October 1926 the first chamber of commerce in Persia was inaugurated at the ministry of commerce in Tehran with Ḥājj Ḥosayn Āqā Mahdawī Amīn-al-Żarb as president and Mīrzā Ḡolām-Ḥosayn Kāšef and Mīrzā Moḥammad Sepehr as secretaries (Sāl-nāma-ye Pārs 1306, p. 10). The representative body included Ḥājj Mīrzā Abū Ṭāleb Eslāmīya, Mīrzā ʿAbd-al-Ḥosayn Nīkpūr, Faqīh-al-­Tojjār, Āqā Mīrzā Moḥammad-ʿAlī Mahlūjī, and Āqā Shaikh Ḥosayn Ḥarīrī. The founding members of the Tehran chamber had previously served on an ad hoc committee of the merchants’ board of directors (heyʾat-­e modīra-ye tojjār), which was formed to support Reżā Khan’s campaign for the throne during 6-8 Ābān 1304 Š./28-30 October 1925 (Amīr Ṭahmāsb, pp. 137-45; Ḥ. Farhūdī and E. Nīkpūr, personal interviews). Amīn-al-­Żarb served as the first president of the chamber (1305­-11 Š./1926-32) and was succeeded by Ḥājj Mīrzā Ḥabīb-­Allāh Amīn-al-Tojjār Eṣfahānī (1312 Š./1933) and Nīkpūr (1313-35 Š./1934-57). From Bahman 1306 Š./January-February 1928 until Mordād 1308 Š./July-­August 1929 the proceedings of the chamber were published in the monthly journal ʿAṣr-e ḥadīd (“Iron age,” later renamed Majalla-ye rāhnamā-ye tejāratī-e Īrān “Journal guide to the commerce of Iran”), edited by F. Pārsā. In 1308 Š./1929 Pārsā dissociated himself from the chamber, and in Ābān/October-November a new journal, the monthly (later biweekly) Majālla-ye oṭāq-e tejārat (Chamber of commerce review), began publication under the editorship of ʿAbbās Masʿūdī, who also edited the daily newspaper Eṭṭelāʿāt (Infor­mation). The small secretariat of the chamber was financed by members’ subscriptions, equivalent to one percent of their income taxes (increased to 1.5 percent in 1331 Š./1952); voluntary contributions; and other, minor, revenues.

In 1310 Š./1931 with the enactment of a foreign-trade monopolization law (Qānūn-e enḥesār-e tejārat-e ḵārejī), the government seized control and monopolized foreign trade, causing the merchants a great deal of anxiety and arousing their suspicion. The authorities suspended the existing chambers of commerce and encouraged their members to cooperate in organizing new bodies, to which permanent legal status was granted. In Mehr 1309 Š./September 1930 the Majles provided for thirty-six new chambers to be established in the major cities, the number of representatives varying with the population and commercial impor­tance of the city from six to fifteen (Majālla-ye oṭāq-e tejārat 9, 1309 Š./1930, pp. 12-14; Qānūn-e taškīl-e oṭāq bāzargānī . . . , pp. 5-11). Only five years later, in 1314 Š./1935, did the government reduce the number of chambers to sixteen and move to tighten control over their activities (Majālla-ye oṭāq-e tejārat 119, 1314 Š./1935, p. 9). Merchants in each of the sixteen cities chose from among their own number a slate of candi­dates, from which the government then selected a third to serve in the representative body of the chamber. The minister of the economy or his representatives had the right to participate in the chamber’s discussions and decision making, and whenever the minister attended he assumed the honorary chair of the meeting (Qānūn-e taškīl-e oṭāq-e bāzargānī . . . , p. 6). In 1312 Š./1933 the general bureau of commerce organized a national conference of chamber representatives, designed to help orient merchants to government policy and to encourage their cooperation. Prime Minister Ḥājj Moḵber-al-Salṭana Mahdīqolī Hedāyat inaugurated the conference and participated in the discussions, and ʿAbd-Allāh Yāsāʾī Ṣadr-al-Odabāʾ, a cabinet member and director general of commerce, was elected as the first conference chairman (Majālla-ye oṭāq-e tejārat 61, 1312 Š./1933, pp. 12-13).

In Ḵordād 1311 Š./1932 a commission consisting of representatives of the Tehran chamber of commerce and high-ranking financial and economic officials under the chairmanship of the powerful court minister ʿAbd-al-Ḥosayn Teymūrtāš met to discuss problems of foreign trade and exchange (Majālla-ye oṭāq-e tejārat 43, 1311 Š./1932, p. 6). Shortly afterward, on 19 Tīr 1311 Š./10 July 1932, a new foreign-trade monopoli­zation law permitted the government to transfer to private individuals its import rights for certain items (Komīsīūn-e Mellī, II, pp. 1925-27). The representative body of the Tehran chamber thus could influence the allocation of shares in the private import trade and the grant of import licenses (jawāz-e wāredāt). Many mer­chants from provincial cities therefore immigrated to Tehran in order to share in these commercial privileges, a process that encouraged further centralization of commercial affairs in the capital (Ḵarrāzī, in Majālla-ye oṭāq-e bāzargānī-e Tehrān, 1 Tīr 1336 Š./22 June 1957, pp. 1-4). The concentration of such power in the hands of a small group of prosperous merchants who supported the regime and thus enjoyed special relations with government officials caused widespread discontent among middle-class bāzārīs.

Oṭāq-e bāzargānī, 1321-32 Š./1942-53. After the fall of Reżā Shah in 1320 Š./1941 many bāzārīs who had been excluded from privileges granted by the govern­ment to the representatives of the Tehran chamber called for the closing of the bāzār as an act of protest against the chamber’s representative body and its powerful president, Nīkpūr. Their principal demand was that the election of the representative body of the chamber should be performed in one stage in order to prevent the government from intervening. The leaders of the opposition to the board of the Tehran chamber were Moḥammad Reżā-Ḵarrāzī, a former officer of the bureau of commerce who came from an old influential merchant family, and Ḥājj Shaikh Aḥmad Sīgārī, a popular bāzārī leader (Ḥ. Farhūdī and N. Awlīāʾ Šīrāzī, personal interviews). In response to these demands in 1321 Š./1942 a new law provided for direct election to the chamber, the name of which was changed to Oṭāq-e bāzargānī (Qānūn-e taškīl-e oṭāq-e bāzargānī . . . , pp. 12-16). Moḥammad-Reżā Ḵarrāzī won the largest number of votes in the first election under this law, but a compromise was effected between two rival factions, under which Nīkpūr remained as president, with Ḵarrāzī as vice president. These two men presided jointly over the chamber’s board for the next two decades. Nīkpūr had begun his political career as a member of the constitutional assembly (majles-e moʾassesān), which ratified transfer of the monarchy from the Qajars to the Pahlavis in 1304 Š./1925, and later served six terms in the Majles as deputy and two as senator; he collaborated with such strong prime ministers as Aḥmad Qawām (Qawām-al-Salṭana, 1324-26 Š./1945-­47), Ḥājī-ʿAlī Razmārā (1329-30 Š./1950-51), and Fażl-­Allāh Zāhedī (1332-34 Š./1953-55). He emerged as a patron for many bāzārīs, on whose behalf he frequently intervened with the authorities, thus further enhancing his political position. He also stage-managed the formation and control of the boards of two bāzārī political associations, the merchants’ union (Etteḥādīya-ye bāzargānān), which had been formed in Esfand 1322 Š./February-March 1924 and which later joined the Tehran chamber in 1328 Š./1949, and the union of guilds in the Tehran bāzār (Etteḥādīya-ye aṣnāf-e bāzār-e Tehrān), which was established in 1326 Š./1947 to fight against the pro-Soviet Tudeh (Tūda) party (Majalla-ye oṭāq-a bāzargānī-e Tehrān 48-49,1328 Š./1949, pp. 15-22; 55, pp. 25-27).

Taking advantage of their relations with government officials, the board members and representatives of the Tehran chamber continued the profitable practice of acquiring import and monopoly permits (jawāz-e wāredāt) for themselves. The middle class bāzārīs and their emerging popular political leader Moḥammad Moṣaddeq often objected to this favoritism, which led to open confrontation between the two parties. Thus, for example, when Moṣaddeq criticized the ministry of finance in the 14th Majles (late 1324 Š./early 1946) for granting the state monopoly on textile materials to a number of influential merchants, the chamber board began to defend the government action while attacking Moṣaddeq in a number of articles published in news­papers. On the other hand, the nationalist middle-class traders and bāzārīs came to support Moṣaddeq in this controversy (Keyostovān, II, pp. 192-203). In 1328 Š./1949 the National Front (Jabha-ya mellī) emerged as a strong opposition party under the leadership of Moḥammad Moṣaddeq and with the support of many bāzārīs, primarily younger, mid-level merchants and master artisans who were dissatisfied with Nīkpūr’s policies. They organized the society of merchants, guilds, and artisans (Jāmeʿa-ye bāzargānān wa aṣnāf wa pīšavarān; see chamber of guilds). They soon came into conflict with leaders of the chamber, who sup­ported the shah in his clashes with Moṣaddeq during the latter’s tenure as prime minister in 1330-32 Š./1951-53. At the close of the chamber’s fourth session, in early 1330 Š./1951, Moṣaddeq’s government declined to hold elections for the next session (Majalla-ye oṭāq-e bāzargānī-e Tehrān, 31 Farvardīn 1334 Š./21 April 1955, pp. 1, 4). The next year, using his plenary power, Moṣaddeq passed a bill enlarging the representative body of the Tehran chamber from fifteen to thirty members, who were to include representatives of guild unions, industry, transportation firms, insurance com­panies, and such government agencies as the national bank (Bānk-e mellī-e Īrān), the national insurance company (Šerkat-e sahāmī-e bīma-ye mellī-e Īrān), and the ministry of the economy (Qānūn-e taškīl-e oṭāq-e bāzargānī . . . , pp. 17-27). The former leaders of the chamber and other wealthy merchants (e.g., Nīkpūr, Ḵarrāzī, and the Rašīdīān brothers, Qodrat-Allāh, Asad-Allāh, and Sayf-Allāh) supported the overthrow of Moṣaddeq engineered by the British MI6 and the American Central Intelligence Agency (Najātī, p. 328; personal interviews). The new cabinet banned the society of merchants, guilds, and artisans and established a new merchants’ union (Etteḥādīya-ye bāzargānān); its representative body, elected in Āḏar 1332 Š./December 1953, comprised such leading mer­chants as Nīkpūr and Ḵarrāzī, formerly the dominant figures on the board of the Tehran chamber, Abu’l-­Ḥasan Ṣādeqī and ʿAlī Wakīlī, who later served as presidents of the Tehran chamber, Ḥājj Āqā Bozorg Abū Ḥosayn, an influential Azeri-speaking bāzārī patron, Ḥājj ʿAbd-Allāh Moqaddam, the owner of two major textile factories (Moqaddam and Momtāz), Mahdī Namāzī, a noted merchant and industrialist, who came from the old merchant family of Shiraz, and Solaymān Wahhābzāda, a well known Azeri-speaking inter­national trader (Eṭṭelāʿāt, 12 Āḏar 1332 Š./3 December 1953).

On 7 Dey 1333 Š./28 December 1954 the Majles passed a new law affecting chambers of commerce (Qānūn-e taškīl-e oṭāq-e bāzargānī . . . , pp. 28-32); elec­tions to the Tehran chamber were held almost immedi­ately, and the biweekly journal Majalla-ye oṭāq-e bāzargānī-e Tehrān resumed publication. With Nīkpūr as president and Ḵarrāzī as vice president the old group reasserted its control of the chamber’s board. In 1337 Š./1958 the chamber issued 3,211 commercial identity cards for full members and 1,812 cards for associate members from four guilds including the tea, sugar, and spice sellers’ guild (Etteḥādīya-ye ṣenfī-e ʿaṭṭār wa saqaṭforūš, 1,598 members), the carpet sellers’ guild (Etteḥādīya-ye ṣenfī-e faršforūš, 130 members), the brokers’ guild (Etteḥādīya-ye ṣenfī-e dallāl, 69 mem­bers), and the agricultural machinery dealers’ guild (Etteḥādīya-ye ṣenfī-e forūšandagān-e māšīnālāt-e kešāvarzī, 15 members; Majalla-ye oṭāq-e bāzargānī-e Tehrān, Ordībehešt 1338 Š./May 1959, Appendix, p. 4).

Nīkpūr and Namāzī were elected to the senate and Ḵarrāzī to the Majles; they were thus able to make use of the parliament to further the interests of the prosper­ous merchant class and to challenge the authority of the government and state managers (see, e.g., Nīkpūr’s speeches in the Senate and Ḵarrāzī’s speeches in the Majles, Majalla-ye oṭāq-e bāzargānī-e Tehrān, 16 Ordībehešt 1334 Š./7 May 1955, pp. 3-8; 6 Ḵordād/28 May, pp. 4-15; 31 Tīr/22 July, pp. 3-11; 19 Ḵordād 1335 Š./9 June 1956, pp. 1-5; and 1 Tīr 1336 Š./22 June 1957, pp. 1-4). In this way the chamber came to function as an almost autonomous organization of wealthy merchants who participated actively in formulating economic policy. After the dismissal of the powerful prime minister Zāhedī in 1334 Š./1955, however, the regime’s auto­cratic policies led to a confrontation with the Tehran chamber. In Esfand 1335 Š./March 1957 Nīkpūr relinquished the presidency to his ally Abu’l-Ḥasan Ṣādeqī, who, however, died the next year; in Bahman 1336 Š./February 1958 ʿAlī Wakīlī, who was obedient to the authorities, became chairman, serving two terms until his death in 1343 Š./1964. Because of the relative weakness of the government in this period, however, the chamber retained some of its prerogatives and func­tioned successfully as a pressure group, especially through the turbulent years of economic recession and political strife in 1339-42 Š./1959-63 (see, e.g., Majalla-ye oṭāq-e bāzargānī, Farvardīn 1340 Š./April 1961, p. 1; Ḵordād/June, pp. 11-12; Mordād/August, pp. 7-16; Mehr/October, pp. 33-34; Šahrīvar-Mehr 1341 Š./ September-October 1962, pp. 19-30). Nevertheless, once Moḥammad-Reżā Shah’s so-called White Revo­lution (Enqelāb-e safīd, q.v.; the shah’s program of modernization, including land reform) had been launched in Bahman 1341 Š./January 1963 and state power had been consolidated in his hands, all previously autonomous civil organizations were brought under control. With the support of the government Mo­ḥammad Ḵosrowšāhī was elected president of the Teh­ran chamber and served two terms (1343-48 Š./1964-70). Not long afterward the national federation of chambers of commerce (Federāsīon-e oṭāqhā-ye bāzargānī-e keš­var) was created under the initiative of the ministry of economy to coordinate the activities of the local chambers and to organize national conferences; Ḵos­rowšāhī was named president and ʿAbd-Allāh Ḵᵛoʾī secretary-general (Majalla-ye oṭāq-e bāzargānī, Ḵordād 1347 Š./May-June 1968, pp. 7-44; Iran Almanac 1969, p. 563).

The chamber of industries and mines of Persia (Oṭāq-e ṣanāyeʿ wa maʿāden-e Īrān), 1341-489 Š./1962-70. Throughout the latter half of the 1330s Š./1950s, Jaʿfar Šarīf-Emāmī, head (1336-39 Š./1957-60) of the ministry of industries and mines (Wezārat-e ṣanāyeʿ wa maʿāden, founded 1334 Š./1955), and his deputy, Ṭāher Żīāʾī had been pressing for a chamber of industries and mines. In 1336 Š./1957 Šarīf-Emāmī submitted to the Majles a draft proposal for a chamber of industries and mines, but approval was blocked by Senator Nīkpūr and his allies, who wanted to prevent the weakening of the Tehran chamber. In 1340 Š./1961 a group of industrialists petitioned Prime Minister ʿAlī Amīnī for establishment of such a chamber, and in Mehr/September-October, they founded the union of the owners of industrial enterprises (Etteḥādīya-ye ṣāḥebān-e ṣanāyeʿ) to further their demands. Finally, Żīāʾī, by then minister of industries and mines in the cabinet of Asad-Allāh ʿAlam (1341-42 Š./1962-63), ob­tained cabinet approval in Mehr 1341 Š./September 1962; in Ābān 1341 Š./October 1962 the national chamber of industries and mines of Persia was formed by thirty leading representatives of industrialists and mine owners of the country. Šarīf-Emāmī was elected president at the first meeting of the representative body (Majalla-ye oṭāq-e bāzargānī, Ābān 1340 Š./November 1961, pp. 17-22; Ābān 1341 Š./November 1962, pp. 36-­42), and a secretariat was organized; operational costs were covered by an allocation of two-fifths of the 1.5 percent tax on merchants (see above) and industrial enterprises. In 1342 Š./1963 it began publishing the bimonthly Majalla-ye oṭāq-e ṣanāyeʿ wa maʿāden-e Īrān, which soon developed into an economic journal with a broader audience and as such did not serve the collective interests of the industrial entrepreneurs. In 1343 Š./1964 the Majles ratified the law authorizing the formation of the chamber of industries and mines of Persia (Qānūn-e taškīl-e oṭāq-e bāzargānī . . . , pp. 34-45). Šarīf-Emāmī resigned in 1346 Š./1967, and Żīāʾī, by then a senator, succeeded him (Eṭṭelāʿāt-e sālāna, 1347 Š./1968, pp. 372-73).

Among the representative body of the chamber of industries and mines of Iran were such leading in­dustrialists as Qāsem Lājavardī representing the Beh­šahr industrial group (Gorūh-e ṣaṇʿatī-e Behšahr), Ḥājj Moḥammad-Taqī Barḵᵛordār, the owner of Pars electric, Toshiba, Kermān cement factory, etc., ʿAlī and Kāẓem Ḵosrowšāhī, the owners of Mīnū industrial group (Gorūh-e ṣaṇʿatī-e Mīnū), and K.B.S. chemical Industrial group, respectively, Ḥājj ʿAbd-Allāh Moqaddam, the owner of large textile factories, the Ḵayyāmī brothers (Aḥmad and Maḥmūd), who owned the Iran National Industrial Group (Gorūh-e ṣaṇʿatī-e Īrān nāsīonāl), the Industrial Bank of Iran (Bānk-e ṣanāyeʿ-e Īrān), Asia Insurance Co. (Bīma-ye Āsīā), the Reżāʾī brothers (ʿAlī and Maḥmūd), who owned the Šahrīār Industrial Group (Gorūh-e ṣaṇʿatī-e Šahrīār) and several mines, and Raḥīm Mottaqī Īravānī, the owner of Mellī industrial group (Gorūh-e ṣaṇʿatī-e mellī; Bricault, pp. 26, 98, 116, 123, 141, 164-66, 184, 194).

The chamber of commerce, industries, and mines of Persia (Oṭāq-e bāzargānī wa ṣanāyeʿ wa maʿāden-e Īrān), 1348-57 Š./1970-79. The new Chamber of commerce, industries, and mines of Persia, Oṭāq-e Īrān, was formed in Esfand 1348 Š./February 1970, when, at the initiative of Hūšang Anṣārī, the powerful minister of economy, the two chambers were merged with Senator Żīāʾī as president (Qānūn-e taškīl-e oṭāq-e bāzargānī . . . , pp. 51­-56). A fairly large secretariat was installed, and the bimonthly journal Majalla-ye oṭāq-e bāzargānī wa ṣanāyeʿ wa maʿāden-e Īrān began publication in Ḵordād 1349 Š./June 1970. In 1354 Š./1975, at the beginning of the second session, the total membership of the Oṭāq-e Īrān numbered 7,070 in Tehran and 1,825 in twenty branches in other major cities. Of the representative body of seventy-two members, who composed the chamber itself, thirty-five represented the Tehran branch, twenty represented other branches, and seven­teen represented the twenty-five unions and syndicates of producers, exporters, and importers, the affiliated members of Oṭāq-e Īrān (Majalla-ye oṭāq-e bāzargānī wa ṣanāyeʿ wa maʿāden-e Īrān, Bahman-Esfand 1353 Š./January-March 1975, pp. 82-94).

Having been dominated by the government, Oṭāq-e Īrān did not directly represent the interests of merchants and industrialist. Despite the rapid growth of commer­cial and industrial capital in the 1340s-50s Š./1960s-70s, Persian entrepreneurs became increasingly subject to the government interventionist policy, especially as oil, the main and rapidly increasing source of Persian revenue, was a state-owned resource (see, e.g., Majalla-ye oṭāq-e bāzargānī wa ṣanāyeʿ wa maʿāden-e Īrān, Bahman-Esfand 1353 Š./January-March 1975, pp. 12­-24).

After the Revolution of 1357 Š./1978-79. In the aftermath of the Revolution hundreds of industrial entrepreneurs, wealthy merchants, mine owners, bankers, and financiers, including most of the leading members of the representative body of Oṭāq-e Īrān, fled the country or were imprisoned and their property was confiscated. Major industries were incorporated into the public sector and came under the control of state managers, whose representatives soon came to dominate the chamber of commerce, industries, and mines. In 1359 Š./1980 the law ratified by the revolutionary council (šūrā-ye enqelāb), authorized the minister of industries and mines and the minister of commerce to appoint less than half of the board members (Qānūn-e taškīl-e oṭāq-e bāzargānī . . . , p. 61). Thus, for example, twenty-two of the forty-five members of the representa­tive body of the Tehran branch were selected from among state managers and twenty-three from the private sector. The latter group included both entrepre­neurs who had survived the revolution (e.g., Moḥsen Ḵalīlī, owner of Būtān Gāz, and Reżā Taḥṣīlī, owner of Pārs Metāl) and others who emerged after the revo­lution such as ʿAlī-Naqī Ḵāmūšī, president of the chamber’s board, an engineer and bureaucrat, who came from a bāzārī family and served as head of the Bonyād-e Mostażʿafān (Foundation for the oppressed) and was deputy minister of commerce; they were instrumental in establishing the association of man­agers of Islamic industries (Anjoman-e modīrān-e ṣanāyeʿ-e eslāmī; information received from the secre­tariat, Oṭāq-e Īrān, 28 Farvardīn 1367 Š./18 May 1988; and personal interviews).

The increasing domination of the civil society by the state has further undermined the political power of private businessmen. As a result, the chamber of commerce, industries, and mines and the association of managers have met with difficulties in dealing with the government and such powerful public organizations as the Bonyād-e Šahīd and the Bonyād-e Mostażʿafān, which have gained control of large enter­prises and become rivals to private firms (personal interviews).

Interviews with Mūsā Amānat, merchant and industrialist, Nāṣer Awlīāʾ-Šīrāzī, member of the representative body, chamber of commerce, industries, and mines of Iran; Ḥosayn Farhūdī, former chairman of the Tehran city council, and secretary general of the chamber of commerce (1334-39 Š./1955-61); Moṣṭafā Ḥosaynzāda, industrialist (owner of Kafš-e vīan); Akbar Lājavardīān, in­dustrialist (Gorūh-e ṣanaʿtī-e Behšahr) and member of the representative body, the chamber of commerce, industries, and mines of Iran; Moḥammad-Ebrāhīm Nīkpūr, former President, Bānk-e Pārs, vice presi­dent, chamber of commerce, and member of the representative body, the chamber of commerce, industries, and mines of Iran.